The role of hope in recovery from mental health problems : a grounded theory analysis

• Main Author: Hobbs, Mia
• Published: University of East London 2008
• Subjects: 150
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.532688

Hope is an area of rapidly increasing interest within clinical psychology and mental health. It has emerged as a major theme within qualitative research based on recovery narratives, and government guidelines recommend that clinicians encourage hope in their clients in order to facilitate recovery. Although theoretical papers have proposed models of the role of hope in recovery from mental health problems, there is no model grounded in how people with experience of recovery speak about this process. In addition, existing literature fails to address how clients speak about the role of mental health professionals in this process. This study used eight interviews with people who had experience of recovery from mental health problems to investigate how they spoke about the role of hope in recovery, and the role of clinicians in this process. A grounded theory analysis resulted in the construction of a model of the complex interaction between hope and recovery. The three main categories were 'the influence of others on hope', 'personal hope' and 'doing recovery'. Important findings included that the model of hope in recovery was characterised by sudden increases in hope throughout a slow and fluctuating recovery 'journey' and that hearing positive narratives of recovery from similar others was a particularly important source of hope and inspiration. Clinicians were also considered to have a pivotal role in clients' hope for recovery. This study contributes towards operationalising how clinicians may implement the guidelines advising them to encourage hope in their clients and highlights the powerful role that they have in this process.